Assistant Instructor

Kale’s adventure with us continues. Here is a post he created shortly after Christmas. This is an edited version; you can read the full text of the original post here.

Over the last 72 hours, I’ve been underwater – or at least sopping wet – for more time than I’ve been on land. As a wonderful consequence, I come bearing many underwater photos, and some relevant subject matter.

On Christmas day, I woke up and headed to the Blue Angel in hopes of catching one of the three boats leaving at ten. I wasn’t surprised when I found out there wasn’t space for little ol’ Kale. Undeterred, I sat down and waited for the horde of divers to clear out of the set-up area. I had decided I was going to dive on Christmas, regardless of whether I’d be flying solo, with a group, off a boat, or walking in from shore. It ended up being for the best, because as I walked over to grab my gear I saw a guy I had met at the Blue Angel Christmas Eve dinner the evening before. A fellow British Columbian named Joe. I asked if he was going on one of the boats.

Joe said ‘nope;’ he was going for a shore dive with two others, and I was welcome to come. I said sure! Two women showed up: May and Sharon? I asked them all if they had done any shore diving at all since they had been here. I received a unanimous ‘no,’ and it was then revealed that May was an ex-instructor, but Joe and Sharon were inexperienced divers. Because I had the strongest familiarity with the location, I took the role of leading the dive.

It was my first go at putting on the professional pants. And I must say, when we came out of the ocean forty minutes later and everyone was buzzing with excitement and talking about how great the dive was, I felt truly satisfied. I understood what I was in for.

The next day Mr. Matthew had a large group of six doing their Peak Performance Buoyancy Dives, assisted by two other Assistant Instructors. A camera was put in my hand and thus a photographer was born. Essentially, my job was very easy, but I did get some good shots of the class as they completed the skills intended to maximize their efficiency underwater. Controlled buoyancy, folks, it’s freakin’ important.

Matthew getting students to fill their masks with seawater, then clear them:

A good way to practice buoyancy control: hovering upside down, using only your breathing to stay aligned, and knocking over a weight with your nose…

Playing with the underwater frisbee:

Matthew silently explaining an ‘out-of-air’ exercise (not part of PPB, but great to practice!):

During our second shore dive, we went against the current for a good twenty minutes and then drifted our way back. I managed to capture some of the craziness that followed, including this video and these photos:

Are you ready to take your training to Instructor level? Ready to change your life? Ready for a new career? We can help! We are still in the early planning stages of our Instructor Development Course (IDC) program for 2013, but we can tell you we plan to run four or five sessions during the year, starting with an IDC that will begin the week of January 21, 2013 and culminate in the Instructor Examination on February 9 and 10. We will be providing details about the program soon: what it includes, what awesome extras we have planned for you to ensure you get the best education possible, how we can help you prepare, what materials are required, all of that.
At this time, we are offering an introductory price of $1,199 + tax. This will apply for our first two IDCs (January and June). Sign up now! Send us an email to ensure you remain in the loop as further details come out, and to secure this introductory price. We will have full program information and dates for the remainder of 2013 within the next couple of weeks.

We have been working hard over the past twelve months to improve our service to you, as well as to be able to expand our offerings. Today, we are very pleased and excited to announce we have been awarded the rating of 5 Star Instructor Development Dive Resort! Congratulations to all of the staff at Blue Angel, and we look forward to moving into the future with you, our friends and students!

Look for more exciting news soon, as we share our plans for our first Instructor Development Course to be held early in the new year at the beautiful Blue Angel Resort!

To ensure you don’t miss any upcoming announcements and SPECIAL PRICING offers, send us an email now!

A few weeks ago, three of our divemasters – Tony, Norman and Martin – began their Assistant Instructor program. Tony finished, and then Norman, and now we are very pleased to offer our congratulations to Martin!

Martin’s mad skills!

All three of these young men worked hard at learning some new things, and we are so pleased to have been a part of their upward progress! Congratulations again, to Tony, Norman and Martin!

Big congratulations to our own Norman! For the past five years he has been a wonderful Blue Angel divemaster, and he has now completed all the requirements of his Assistant Instructor course! Please join us in congratulating Norman; he did a great job!

We have just confirmed dates for our next Assistant Instructor course! Are you ready to take your skills to the next level and prepare for your Instructor Development Course? Join us here at Blue Angel Scuba School October 2nd through 5th and make it happen!